Clintons’ vast wealth becomes an election issue

The cottage industry the Clintons have created is already drawing criticism similar to attacks on Mitt Romney.
Photo: Getty Images

by
Lisa Lerer | Lauren Streib

Despite crying poor on leaving the White House, former president
Bill Clinton
and his wife.
Hillary Clinton
. have created a family industry of speaking engagements, book deals and paid appearances at corporate retreats.

This family business is booming. Bloomberg estimates Hillary earned at least $US12 million ($12.8 million) in 16 months since leaving the State Department, a windfall at odds with her party’s call to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor.

At least 12 organisations that previously booked Bill Clinton – who has been paid almost $US106 million in speaking fees alone since he left the White House – also hired his wife.

Among them: Goldman Sachs Group and the National Association of Realtors.

With a prospective 2016 presidential candidacy in her future, she keeps tight control over her events. In one university contract, Clinton retained the right to approve her introducer, program, moderator and the set, and she limited to 50 the number of pictures taken on a rope line.

Her earnings represent a fraction of the Clinton family’s total income and yet were large enough to rank her not only in the top 1 per cent of the nation’s earners but in the top one-hundredth of the 1 per cent.

“Bill and I have worked really hard and we’ve been successful," she said last week in an appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

“We believed we could pretty much make our way up the ladder. Now, I think a lot of young people don’t believe that any more."

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Clinton’s representatives declined requests to comment for this article.

The cottage industry the Clintons have created around their public personae is already drawing criticism similar to the 2012 attacks on Mitt Romney, the co-founder of private equity firm Bain Capital.

The annual US mean wage for all occupations was $US46,440 as of May 2013. In the 2012 presidential election, 41 per cent of voters nationally had earnings of $US50,000 or less. Among those who backed President Barack Obama, 60 per cent made that much or less, exit polls show.

Democratic and Republican analysts dubbed as a gaffe Clinton’s assertion in an ABC News interview that her family was “dead broke" when leaving the White House, given its wealth today.

Some aren’t sure she learned the right lessons from it.

Clinton called comparisons with Romney a “false equivalency," during an interview last month with PBS. “I’m fully comfortable with who I am, what I stand for and what I’ve always stood for."

Her supporters dismiss the idea that her wealth is an issue, saying she has long backed policies that would benefit ordinary Americans.

“Hillary Clinton has fought her entire life to advocate for a level playing field and to increase opportunity for all Americans," said Adrienne Watson, deputy communications director for Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton organisation. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, also commands $US75,000 a speech, as first reported by The New York Times. She donates all her fees to the family foundation.

The Clinton Foundation reported more than $US234 million in revenue in 2012, according to Internal Revenue Service filings. Hillary’s book, ‘Hard Choices, netted the former first lady at least $US6 million, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of public records.

The 635-page tome has sold 191,000 hard copies in five weeks, according to Nielsen, which covers about 85 per cent of the print book market.

The sales have kept Clinton on the non-fiction bestseller list since its release.

“The book should have a very long shelf life, with significant hardcover sales over time," said Christy Fletcher, a literary agent and co-founder of Fletcher & Co. “Especially if she decides to run."

Beyond her book, Clinton has been paid at least $US6 million for more than 100 speeches and appearances she has given to a range of industry groups, non-profits, universities and corporations, according to published reports and a survey of those who hired her.

“The Clintons did not start a company that created growth or jobs," said Tim Miller, executive director of America Rising, a super-political action committee founded by Romney campaign veterans.

“What they did to make money was put a ‘For sale’ sign on themselves."